Crisis Praying

What a fitting introduction to Jonah chapter 2. We're in the second chapter of Jonah this morning and I cannot think of a better introduction than that because it is sometimes through the storms of life that God does his deepest work in us. And certainly that was true with Jonah. Certainly it was true with Janelle Gussmann. Janelle Gussmann was just almost ten years ago on 9-11 in Tower 1. When the first plane, hijacked plane, hit the twin towers. When the awareness became real to people in the towers to how serious things were, she liked most everybody else in the building made a frantic effort to get out. Janelle was on the 13th floor in a stairwell when Tower 1 collapsed. She was thrown back and forth and finally came to rest between two pillars. Alive but unable to move. And in the dust and darkness she began to think about her life. She began to cry out to God. She began to pray. This immigrant from Trinidad who had come to the States, had come to no Christ as her Savior and had identified with Brooklyn Tabernacle where Jim Simbola is the senior pastor. She began to pray because she knew that although she was saved and she was in a good church, at best her commitment to Christ and her commitment to that church was very marginal. She was kind of on the fringes. She wasn't really living for the Lord. She wasn't serving him in any way. She began to pray in the darkness and the dust of the rubble. And this was what her prayer was. She records, please just give me this one miracle. As she cried out to God, she asked for another chance. She committed to God that if he would allow her to live, that she would recommit her life to him, she would live for him. Nothing would be the same in her life from this moment on. 26 hours later, Janelle Gussmann was the last survivor pulled from the rubble of the Twin Towers. And that's exactly where we find Jonah today. Praying in a crisis, crying out to God in a crisis. We've been traveling with Jonah. We've been journeying with Jonah. We've followed his physical journey from his hometown in Gathepher to Jerusalem and his ministry. And from Jerusalem where God calls him and commands him to go to that fearful, wicked, brutal people, the Assyrians. And to the major city in Assyria and declare God's judgment against them. And Jonah says, if that's what you want me to do, forget it. I'm out of here. I quit the ministry. I don't want anything more to do with you or with being a prophet. In fact, rather than going to Nineveh, I'm going to go the opposite direction to Tarshish, the further, further most part of the world in the West at that time. Probably in the country of Spain. So he goes to Joppa, boards a ship, and decides he's getting away. But God doesn't let him. And as we saw last time, God will not let his children run without pursuing them. Like the hound of heaven, God pursues his own when they try to run from him. And he did with Jonah in disciplining him and chasing him. God sent a storm, a natural disaster. God sent embarrassment of discovery as pagans who know better than to run from their gods discovered Jonah actually running from the true God. The embarrassment of discovery. God sent smashed plans. All of his plans and ambitions. It is clear. Will not be fulfilled now. And then God sent a crisis in the ocean. Being swallowed by a great fish. God sends a crisis to get his attention. What we find is that once Jonah hits the water, his stubbornness melts. Once Jonah hits the water, he realizes at least for this moment this is getting really serious. It's one thing to say I'd rather die than to go to a Syria, just throw me into the water. It's another thing to be sinking in that water. And that wakes Jonah up. That gets Jonah's attention. Chapter 2 is a record later in Jonah's experience, a record looking back, recalling his crisis experience and his crying out to God, his prayer to God during this time. So what I want us to see in Jonah chapter 2 is that Jonah demonstrates four characteristics of crisis praying. What it means to pray when you're in crisis. I want to ask you today, are you in crisis? Have you come to church this morning but your life is in turmoil? Maybe it's a crisis at work. You dread going into work tomorrow. The people you work with are insufferable. The person who is over you and your job is intolerable. Your job is so demanding it's about to break your health. Something is not going right at work and you dread it, you're in crisis. So you don't know how long your job will continue. Are you in crisis today? Maybe you're in a crisis with your family. Teenager, aging parent, sick child, wayward spouse. You're in crisis. You don't know where to turn. You don't know what to do. Maybe you're in a crisis in your personal life. Your finances, your personal life, a physical challenge. Something that looms in front of you that seems impossible, impossible to escape. And you're here in crisis this morning. What do you do when you're in crisis? How do you pray when your life is shattered at your feet? Jonah demonstrates how to pray in a time of crisis. The first characteristic of Jonah's prayer is crying out. Crying out. Look at verse 1. From inside the fish, Jonah prayed to the Lord is God. Actually, this chapter will describe not only his experience inside the fish, but also as he made his way down in the ocean and then was sucked into the great fish. By the way, if you're concerned about that miracle, if you were with us last time, I showed you a picture which I should have brought again today of a fish that is entirely capable. I was just taking a couple of three weeks ago off the coast of Mexico of swallowing a person. You may remember that gaping mouth that is entirely capable of swallowing a person. So don't worry about that part of it. But as Jonah from the belly of the fish, and even before, as he sinks in the ocean, cries out to God. Look at what he says, verse 2. He said, in my distress, I called to the Lord and He answered me. From the depths of the grave, I called for help. And you listen to my cry. Jonah is crying out to God. Actually, as you can tell from reading this verse, verse 2 is a summary of his whole experience. Because looking back on it now, he knows that God answered him. He knows that God delivered him. So verse 2 is really a summary of his whole experience, the details of which are fleshed out in the following verses. Verse 2 is kind of an introduction, a summary of what will happen to Jonah and how he cries out to God. But would you notice the terminology here? He says, in my distress, I called to the Lord and He answered me from the depths of the grave, the word grave, literally the Hebrew word, shi'ol, the word meaning the place where the dead go. Jonah, as he is sinking in the water, recognizes he is headed for death. He is certain he is dying. From the depths of the place where people go when they die, I called for help. And you listened to my cry. Would you notice? He says, I called to the Lord. I called for help. You listen to my cry. Jonah's first reflex, his first response in crisis was to cry out to God. And that is our first response. That is our initial reflexive reaction. It's just to cry out in desperation. Interestingly enough, one Wall Street journalist who analyzes the stock market has traced the sale of Bibles by Thomas Nelson, the giant publisher company who sells a lot of Bibles, traced how they sell in Bibles during the bear and bull market times. And he said when the market is up, they sell a lot more Bibles than when the market is up, they sell a lot less Bibles than when the market is down. And he made this observation. He said, when times are good, people play. When times are bad, people pray. Our first instinctive reaction in a crisis is to cry out to God, just like Jonah did. A few years ago, I was on my way to Appalachian Bible College to chair a board meeting up there. And I just pulled off of 19 and some of you are familiar with that exit and it goes down to about 16 and you turn left. So you have to go to ABC. You have to cross both lanes of traffic. It's a very busy time of morning, a lot of traffic. I was intently watching the traffic trying to find a time to get out and I heard the screeching of tires behind me. I had time to look up just in time to see a truck barreling toward me. The police estimated he was doing 50 miles an hour when he hit me. It caved in my car all the way to the front seat, knocking me out into more traffic where I was hit again from the side. And I remember instinctively, reflexically, without having a moment to think, I remember in that split second, I was in the worst words, God helped me. And then it was just utter chaos. I think our instinctive reaction in times like that is Lord helped me. Remember Peter as he's walking on the water, going to Christ to begin to look around at the waves and he begins to sink. Remember what he said? Lord saved me. Now don't get pious on me this morning. Don't say, well, no pastor, John, when I'm in crisis, I first of all pause to give thanks to God for this time of trial. And I prays him that when I know from James chapter one that I'm supposed to count it all joy when I enter into various kinds of trial. And I know that trial works patience and endurance and endurance works hope and hope does not disappoint. I know Romans five and I pray all of those things in that moment of crisis. And I ask God to help me understand that there's any sin in my heart that I need to confess to him and get right with him. And then I pray for wisdom, John. I ask for wisdom that I know you don't. I mean, hopefully at some point you get there, that's where God wants us to get. But in the moment of crisis, in that moment when boom, it's here instinctively, just cry out. John says, I cried out. I cried out for help. You heard my cry. I called out. And that's where we are in times of crisis. God understands that, my friend. God doesn't under God does not expect the theological treatise when you're in crisis. He knows you're going to just cry out to him as a child. You cry out for help. He understands that. He doesn't want you to stay there. He wants you to go further than that. He wants you to go deeper than that. But he knows as we all know, we instinctively just cry out to God when we're in crisis. And that's okay. But Jonah says God took me further than that. One characteristic of crisis praying is crying out. Yes. But then Jonah says, another characteristic is giving thanks. And in verses two through six, Jonah describes his giving of thanks. Now it doesn't sound like giving of thanks at first, because from verse two, all the way up in the verse six, he describes what it was like to sink in the ocean. This is a graphic description of a man drowning. This is not for the fainted heart. So put your ear plugs in if you don't want to hear this. But when he ends up in verse six, he is thanking God because now he realizes that God is delivering him. I want to anticipate a little bit of where I'm headed. Part of giving thanks to God is recounting exactly what he did for you. And that's what Jonah is doing in verses two through six. He's recounting blow by blow what it was like to hit the water. To gasp for air and then to start sinking. And he thanks God as he realizes what God has brought him through. He thanks God for what he's done. Notice if you will, this amazing description of what happened to Jonah in verse three. You hurled me into the deep. The deep is an old testament word described for the using that is used to describe the vastness of the ocean. And by saying this, he's saying we were not near shore where I could get my bearings and swim to shore. We are in the deep. We are out in the ocean. You hurled me into the deep, into the very heart of the seas. And the currents swirled around me, catch those descriptive terms of being disoriented with the currents all around him, swirling around him. And then he says, all your waves and breakers swept over me like the perfect storm, 30 foot waves in this terrible storm. We're about to capsize the boat. And here's Jonah out in the water with those waves crashing over him, breaking over his head. What an awesome description. What a terrifying, horrifying experience that would be. But notice, Jonah is very careful as he recalls this experience. This experience to say, you hurled me into the deep. God, your waves and breakers swept over me. It was not the sailors ultimately in Jonah's eyes that cast him into the sea. You hurled me into the sea. It was not just the sea that was coming around him. It was God's breakers and waves that were coming over him. So Jonah recognized at this point in his experience that God is chasing him. The sailors, the storm are only the instruments and God's hands used to chasing him to discipline him. Notice the further description verse four, I said, I have been banished from your sight. It's used in the Old Testament numbers of times to describe the disfavor and judgment of God. It's not that you're out of God's vision. You're never out of God's sight. But to be banished from God's sight was a Hebrew way of saying, I am in your disfavor. I am under your judgment. In fact, almost every expression in this chapter comes directly out of the Psalms. A very interesting feature of Jonah's desperate prayer is that in a time of crisis, all the word of God that he had hidden in his heart comes pouring out in this prayer. And this expression being banished from God's sight is very familiar in the book of Psalms. A couple of examples. Look at the screen Psalm 31 and verse 22. The Psalmist says, in my alarm, I said, I am cut off from your sight, yet you heard my cry for mercy when I called to you for help. A very similar situation of being in God's chasinging and God's judgment and God's discipline being expressed or described as, I am cut off from your sight. In Psalm 131, the Psalmist says, how long, Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you notice this? Hide your face from me. This expression of being banished from God's sight is not an expression of Jonah saying, I'm out of your sight, but it means I am, you're hiding your face from me. I'm being judged by you. I'm being chastened by you. This is your hand of chasinging on me. I've been banished from your sight and then he says in verse 4, yet I will look again toward your holy temple. The Hebrew expression there can actually be understood as a question and I think it really serves better as a question in the context. I think that's the way it should be translated. Jonah actually is saying, will I ever see again your holy temple in the context of everything he's saying, he's expressing what's happening to him as he knows he's headed for death. There is no indication yet that Jonah is going to be delivered. The fish hasn't shown up yet. There is not even yet a prayer to God. That doesn't happen to verse 7. At the moment he is about to lose consciousness. Right now all Jonah is thinking, I'm thinking, I'm dying. Will I ever see your temple again? And in his mind at this point, no, this is it for me. Look at verse 5, the engulfing waters threatened me. The word threatened literally means waters at my throat. The engulfing waters are at my throat. The deep surrounded me again. The vastness of the ocean is like the whole ocean is coming over me. The deep surrounded me. And as he's sinking, he says, seaweed was wrapped around my head. This terrible storm which has churned up the waters and churned up plant life in the ocean. It's swirling around his head as he sinks underwater. Notice the rest of the description of verse 6. To the roots of the mountains, I sank down. The roots of the mountains was a Jewish way of describing the bottom of the ocean. You know as you look at mountains on the face of the earth, they seem to stop at the earth. But in the Jewish mindset, they continued on down to the bottom of the oceans. And of course we know today that the bottoms of the oceans are covered with mountain ranges. And so that is an accurate description of the bottom of the ocean. Jonah is basically saying, I am sinking. I know I'm going to the bottom. And then he says in verse 6, the earth beneath barred me in forever. The Hebrew word barred is a word which literally means iron gates which are shut, bars which are shut. But in the ancient world, people saw the place of departed spirits, people when they died being the underworld or in Hebrew word shale. And they saw it as a place where they gates closed behind them. Iron bars closed behind them. And that's the imagery here. Jonah says, I know I'm sinking. I'm going to go all the way to the bottom. And it is as though I can see the gates of death closing, shutting behind me forever. Topless. He knows he is dying. But at the very end of verse 6, but he says, you brought my life up from the pit. Again, the place of death. Oh Lord, my God. And it is at that moment that he recognizes he is actually being delivered. Maybe he realizes, maybe he can see, maybe he can just feel himself being sucked into the huge mouth of that fish. And he realizes that God is delivering him from this death, this certain death which seemed absolutely certain and forever just a moment before. And in those words at the end of verse 6, he expresses his thanks. I recognize, Lord, now that you are delivering me from death, that you are saving my life, O Lord, my God. What I find so fascinating about this description of giving thanks to God is that it is very specific. And we would do well to learn not only in crisis, but at other times as well, when we give thanks to God, don't just say, Lord, thank you for all your blessings. Oh, I praise you, Lord, you're so wonderful. That's, that's, that's okay. But thank God specifically where he brought you from. Never forget where he brought you from. Never forget what he's brought you through. Never forget where you would be the pit you would be in, where it not for his grace. Specifically, give him thanks for what he has done. Describe in your heart to him how grateful you are for exactly the journey on which he has led you and how he has delivered you. What it could be in your life were it not for his grace. Jonah was very specific and describing what happened to him and what God delivered him from. He could have just said, I thank you God for delivering me from death, but now he was much more descriptive and specific than that. I would encourage you're giving of thanks, my giving of thanks to be that gripping, that real, that specific that we cry out to God our thanks from whence he's brought you from death. Thanks from whence he's brought us what he's brought us through where we would be, but not for his grace. Giving thanks is a part of crisis praying, but a third characteristic of crisis praying is expressing contrition in verses seven and eight. Let me just, let me talk for just a moment about what that word contrition means. It's a good Bible word. We just don't use it that much. So we may not be familiar with it. Contrition means sorrow for sin because of what you know it does to God. Not because you got caught, not because you were embarrassed, not because it hurt you, but a sorrow for sin because you know you've offended a holy God. That's contrition. David expresses it so well in his prayer after his awful painest sin with Bathsheba in Psalm 51, part of his prayers this. My sacrifice, oh God, is a broken spirit, a broken and here it is, a broken and contrite heart. You God will not despise. Contrition is that sorrow for sin that recognizes we have, we have disappointed God. We have gone against his holiness. We have displeased him. That's contrition. And Jonas contrition is seen first of all in his submission. Look at verse seven, which describes his submission. When my life was ebbing away, literally the word means fainting away. When my life I could feel it leaving and I was going into unconsciousness. I was losing consciousness basically. What are you saying? I remembered you Lord. What a great statement. Yes, it is at the very end before Jonah and his will is broken and he cries out to the Lord. It is as he is losing consciousness that he remembers God. But all that remembering of God that phrases so packed with expression in the Old Testament. Sometimes to remember God simply means that we are aware mentally. We remember we call him I and God. And I'm sure that's a part of it here. Jonah thought of God and his greatness and thought about his past mercies to him. Maybe what God had done in his life. He remembered God. But secondly, the word remember God is used in the Old Testament of crying out to God. And that's no doubt the way it's used here. Not only did he remember God in the sense of being aware that of God's past mercies, but he cried out to him. But there's a third meaning of this word in the Old Testament. If I think it's packed right in here as well. And that is remembering in the Old Testament sometimes means to act on the basis of a promise or a covenant that you have made. A great example of this is Exodus chapter 2, which describes God remembering Israel when they cried out to him from Egypt in their slavery. Notice what it says during that long period the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. Now notice how God responds. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. And God looked upon the Israelites and was concerned about them. How did God respond to their cry? He remembered. It's not just that he was mentally aware. He remembered his covenant and he acted on the basis of the promises that he had made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And I believe that's a part of what's happening with Jonah here. And it says that I remembered you as I was losing consciousness. I remembered you. Jonah is saying basically God I remembered the promise I made to you. I remembered the covenant, the vow I made to you to be your man, your prophet, your preacher to go wherever you wanted me to go. I remembered that. I recommit myself to that. And so there is a submission here. There is a breaking of his will that says I submit myself to the covenant I've made with you. I remember that promise I made to you. Jonah's contrition is seen in his submission, but secondly it's seen in his confession in verse 8. Those who cling to worthless idols, Jonah says. Forfeit the grace that could be theirs. Now there are some who believe that Jonah is here referring to the pagan sailors who were crying out to their pagan gods. I don't think so. Jonah is not thinking about the sailors right now. He's thinking about himself. He's thinking about the desperate Straits which he finds himself in. And he's thinking about his own vow to God. And in an act of confession, Jonah says. Those who cling to worthless idols, that's what I was doing. God, what I did is I placed my will. My plans, my ambition, my resistance on the throne of my life. And anything you place on the throne of your life apart from God is an idol. Anything that comes between you and God in his purpose for your life is an idol. And Jonah is admitting confessing what idolatry really is. He was guilty of it himself. God says go to Nineveh. Jonah says I got a plan on my own. God says I want you to speak my message of judgment. Jonah says no, I'm going my way. He had become an idolator. He had placed his own will, his own plan, his own ambition and pursue the head of God. And he's admitting that here. He's confessing that here. Those who cling to these worthless idols, powerful word, worthless found 31 times in the book of Ecclesiastes, translated vain or empty. Anything you place on the throne of your life will leave you empty with no purpose, no meaning in life. Only God deserves to be on the throne of your life. And Jonah is admitting what I was following was empty. It was worthless. And when you do that, you're forfeit the grace that could be yours. I think the NIV has the translation right here. Grace is what God gives us. And this is a rich word in the Old Testament. Sometimes it's translated mercy, sometimes favor, sometimes long suffering, sometimes kindness. It's a word that really can't be summarized in one English word. Grace captures a part of it, but it's all the blessings of God. Everything he gives us. And when we place anything on the altar or the throne of our lives ahead of God, we forfeit his kindness, his love, his mercy, his grace, all of the blessings that he wants to shower upon us. And Jonah is confessing I've gotten away from you, God. I put myself on the throne. And that's what I'm paying for now. That's contrition. What about you this morning? You're in crisis. Are you willing to recognize that quite possibly maybe the reason for that crisis, not every crisis is for this reason, but quite possibly. It could be God is getting your attention to bring you back to him. And you need to come back to him in a submission of your spirit to him once again and a willingness to take yourself off the throne of your life and confess that you've been an idolatr, you put things ahead of God. And that's worthless. That's empty. And you want him once again to be Lord of your life. That's what Jonah is doing here. That's crisis praying, expressing contrition. But Jonah also is making commitments. And a part of crisis praying how God wants us to pray in a crisis when we realize what we have done is to make commitments coming back to him. He does it in verse 9. He says, but I with a song of Thanksgiving will sacrifice to you what I have vowed I will make good salvation comes from the Lord. What Jonah is describing is the third of the five offerings that is described in the book of Leviticus called the peace offering or the Thanksgiving offering. It's an offering that would be given to the by the Israelite on one of three occasions, either just as an act of Thanksgiving to God. And Jonah seems to be indicating that here when he says with a song of Thanksgiving, I will sacrifice to you. Or secondly, that offering the peace offering or fellowship offering would be offered when a person was making a vow to God or recommitting to a vow previously made or sometimes at the end of a vow after it had been accomplished. I think that's what Jonah saying here. Sometimes that offering thirdly would just be used as a worship offering a joyful praise offering to God. This was not an offering for sin. This was not an offering like the burnt offering or the guilt offering. This was an offering that was used to make a vow to God. And I think Jonah is saying when I get back to the temple, I am recommitting myself to you with a song of Thanksgiving and a peace offering, a fellowship offering that I will give to recommit myself in my vow. And I will say to you, what I have vowed, I will make good. I vowed to you at one time that I would be your prophet, that I would go wherever you sent me and say whatever you told me to say and I abandoned that God. I recommit myself to that vow. That's what Jonah saying or recommitment. What about you, my friend? Have you come to a crisis point in your life and maybe you've recognized I've put something ahead of God. I'm serving myself, my own ambition, my own plan, my own drive for life. You find yourself in crisis with empty idolatry. God wants you to recommit yourself to Him. You want you to come back to Him to say what I vowed to you in the past. I'm going to make good onward. No more of this soft living of being on the fringes of commitment. I am all in. I am all yours. I am there for you by God's grace. I will commit myself fully to you. Maybe you need to do that this morning. Maybe you need to commit yourself unreservedly, wholeheartedly recommit yourself to what you had committed to before. This is Jonah's prayer. What a prayer it is. Notice the end of the story. At least to this point, there's more to the story in Jonah. But if this point, verse 10 says, in the Lord, commanded the fish and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. You know, I've often felt sorry for the fish in this story. Poor fish. He thought he had a tasty meal till he found out he had a preacher. And one who was out of sorts with God, that's enough to turn any fish's stomach. And it certainly did this one. But did you notice how God commanded the fish and the fish immediately responded? God has sovereign over all of his creatures. Only people has he given a will that can say no to him. The fish obeys Jonah would not. Are you going to obey the Lord today? Will you with your will submit to him? Whatever he's saying for you to do? I would submit to you this morning that this is not just how to pray in a crisis. This is good praying. This is just flat out good praying. Not just in a crisis. This is the way we ought to pray in a crisis. But this is good praying. Our praying is often so shallow. When we were gone a week ago, we spent three days in Chicago with our daughter Ruth and Robert and our two grandchildren. Ruben is three years old. And Ruben, I noticed through the days we were there, has a way of making requests of his father or mother. He will say ask them for something and before they have a chance to answer, he will say, say yes, Daddy. Could we read a book, say yes, Daddy? Could we get an ice cream, say yes, Daddy? Could we go to the park, say yes, Daddy? And as I listened to that and chuckled about it through those days, I thought, how much like me that is? How much like our praying, that is? For many of us in this room, the bulk, maybe the majority, maybe the most of our praying is God. I need this. Say yes, God. God, I want to say yes, God. God, can I say yes, God? Someone has said we will finally come to learn that all prayers are answered when we finally come to learn that no is an answer. But so often the extent of our praying is what I want. And oh, say yes, God. We dictate the God, we order God around how shallow our praying is. But in reality our praying really should be crying out to God, crying out for his help, crying out to not only in crisis, but we need his help every moment of every day, crying out to him as a child that needs him for every challenge of every day. What our praying should be is specific, giving a thanks to God. Do you ever take time to give thanks to him? What our praying should be is expressing contrition, letting our will be submitted to him, asking for his will, his purpose, rather than asking him to say yes to our plans, but laying our will at his speed, confessing our worthless idolatry to him, and letting him be the Lord of our lives. What our praying should be is the making of commitments to him or the recommitting of ourselves to him. That's the way we ought to pray every day, not just in a crisis. That's the way we ought to be praying all the time. That's the way we ought to pray every day, not just in a crisis, but in a crisis that needs him or the recommitting of ourselves to him. That's the way we ought to pray every day, not just in a crisis, but in a crisis that needs him or the recommitting of ourselves to him, and letting him be the Lord of our lives. I give you thanks for who you brought me from, where I could be without your grace. I submit my will to yours, my plans, my ambition to yours. I want you to be on the throne, Lord of my life. I confess all my worthless idolatry to you, and I commit myself to you this day. That's the way we ought to pray. Let's join our hearts together. Father, thank you for Jonah's model prayer in a crisis. Yes, but all how his heart cried out to you. And I pray, O Father, that you would help us to cry out to you, not just in a crisis, but every day of our lives in this same way. God help us, we need you, help us to accept your answers, whatever they be, help us to trust you, however you lead us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.